Burning
by J S Arnold
Summary: When a strange illness befalls the town of Mystic Falls, only a few are spared. Can Bonnie, Damon and Meredith escape the mindless savagery of their neighbors, can they keep from being torn apart? Even vampires fall unwell from this violent, horrific, wasting disease, all except one... She's vulnerable, they're in danger, and he knows it...
1. Chapter 1

**Burning**

**Chapter One**

Soft pillows. She has always wanted soft pillows like these, and now that she has them she would lay like this forever. Definitely feathers, her usual pillows are been made out of an old cotton mix, these feel luxurious and cradle her head in a cloud. She could stay like this, under these soft covers, forever... almost. She opens her eyes and feels her brow furrow, even before her brain can comprehend what she is seeing. _Elena?_

Elena was laying across the bed from her, sleeping peacefully and without a sound. She could be dead for all Bonnie knew, the real, not-coming-back kind of dead, and maybe her spirit was floating around above her right now. She looked up and around her for any signs of magic in the air but saw nothing. How long had Elena been dead to the world? She put her hand down on the mattress of the bed to steady herself and felt something beneath her hand move. She screamed and jumped almost out of her skin. _What was that?_

"Good morn—" Someone was speaking from just to her right, and his voice was just as tempting as she remembered. This had to be a dream, even if no dream she ever had made her heart race this fast in her chest. He coughed as if to dislodge something thick in his throat. "Good morning Bonnie..." She gripped the nearest object at hand and debated launching it at him, it would feel good to beat him with it, but the chances were that he would beat her back. Even the softest pillow would hurt if it was brought down on her with a vampire's strength.

She allowed him to take the weapon from her hands, but spoke before he could say anything more. "What the— Damon!?" She tried to hit out at him using her fists, but he had the pillow in front of him before her fist could make contact with his chest. "Why—How—What have you done?" Her voice was strong despite the false starts, as steady as if they were having an ordinary conversation about ordinary things. Damon did not always have reasons for the things he did, most things were heat-of-the-moment spontaneous, but she prayed that he would tell her.

"Why is it that _I _have to have done something, anything, wrong?" His eyes widened as he pointed a finger to his chest. The expression on his face was curious, but that did not have to mean that he was not in control of the situation; Damon never did anything by accident, or let anything get out of his control, or at least not how anyone else could see it. "You really want to know why you're on my bed?" He paused for a beat, as if he really wanted to have an answer. "Because I do, Bonnie, God knows I do..." He seemed genuinely perplexed, looking back over his shoulder at Elena with a frown furrowing his brow.

"You mean, this isn't _your _doing?"

He did not answer with words, he didn't have to. The confusion and indignation was written all over his face in deep lines around his eyes and mouth. His stress was the air, like something she could touch and shape with her fingers. That was answer enough. The silence was hard and cold between them as each waited for the other to do something, say anything more. Neither of them knew what to say, even if there were questions dancing in both their minds. At last, Bonnie was the first to speak, although it pained her.

"Is Elena... is she...?"

Damon was at Elena's side in a matter of seconds, pressing his fingers to the side of her neck, just over the place where her pulse would be easiest to find. His body went as still as a statue, rock hard, as he counted the beats per minute. Bonnie had never been so silent in all her life; watching him go absolutely still like that, so vampire, reminded her that he was not human. How she could have forgotten, she felt his power vibrating in the air, but suddenly she felt his difference in her bones, as if she were surprised. That was silly, how could she have forgotten what he was when he made no attempt at disguising his true nature? Could he tell that she sometimes forgot that he wasn't human?

"Damon! What are you doing?"

He lent over Elena's prone body as if getting ready to feed. His mouth was so close to the delicate flesh of her neck that it would take just a second to sink his fangs in and draw blood, and yet that was not what he did. He pressed his ear beside the artery and listened. "She's alive," he said, "though, for how much longer, I can't be sure-her skin is hot."

Bonnie's heart was beating fast in her chest. Elena might be dead soon and there was nothing she could do about it. She could not take her to a hospital, where someone who _knew _might find them, and she could not just sit here and do nothing. It was a problem only Elena Gilbert could solve, which was a problem in itself.

"Touch her, Bonnie. I want to know if you can feel anything." It was like an order, but the look in Damon's eyes was pleading. He wanted to know if Bonnie could sense anything _other_, anything magical that might have caused this.

Bonnie was confused as to why her touch should be any different to his. She shuffled closer and paused, debating. What harm could it do? Part of her did not want to know, and still she found herself reaching over and pressing her two fingers against the other girl's neck. It took only an instant to discover why Damon had asked for a second opinion, instead of just trusting his own. Elena's skin was red-hot, as if she were burning up from the inside, from a fever that raged through her body. Again, she wondered just what Damon had done to cause both she and Elena to pass out and end up in his bed.

"What have you done, Damon?" She asked, hoping that he would admit to something and not leave her hanging.

"I don't know, Bonnie, I don't know." He eyes clouded over milky for just a second, then he shook his head. He seemed not to know. "I don't know what's wrong with everyone..."

"Everyone?" Bonnie noticed his glance towards the window and she took a half step forwards. There might be something for her to see from the window.

"Don't, Bonnie!" Damon shouted, using his vampire speed to reach for her and wrap an arm around her waist, stopping her from moving any closer. "You don't want to see what's outside."

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

_It had begun with two people. The first was a boy, no older than 16. They had been at school when Henry first bit someone, the teacher._

Bonnie relaxed in his arms despite herself. She _so _wanted to see what was outside now, mostly because she had been told she could not. Why was it always that way? She wriggled a little in Damon's arms, but of course he wasn't moved even a little. She wanted to tell him that whatever was outside the window couldn't be so terrible that he would need to protect her from it, that she could handle it, whatever it was, but something in his stillness made it impossible to speak. Behind where she stood, imprisoned, there was something close to a moan.

He spun them around at lightening speed, turning in a circle quicker than anyone could have blinked. At first there was nothing to see, but then he caught movement from the bed. Elena's index finger twitched, then curled, claw-like. Her face was still peaceful, but behind that blankness something stirred. Elena had been comatose since Damon had rescued she and Bonnie from their houses, and now it seemed as if she were waking up. He would not bring himself to go near her though; there was something about her, a thing he could not quite put his finger on, that made his internal warning systems buzz. Something about her was not right.

"She's moving," Bonnie said, as if it needed saying, "She's aright! I knew she would be all right!" She unthinkingly threw her body forwards toward her friend, but the arms still around her stopped her from moving even a millimetre. She turned her face to look back at Damon and saw his stricken expression. "Can't you see, Damon?" She asked hesitantly. "Can't you see she's awake—she's all-right?"

"She's not _all-right_," he whispered.

"What do you mean, she looks just the same as..." Bonnie stopped speaking as Elena opened one blood-shot, faintly red eye. Her irises were the colour of steel instead of the usual lapis lazuli shade, and the dullness more than anything else was enough to convince Bonnie that something was very wrong. Mere tiredness, or even drugs, could not take the shine out of her eyes that way, and Bonnie was more than sure of that as the seconds ticked slowly by.

"Errrm, Damon... Elena's awake..."

He pressed her more tightly to him before he could even think. It was natural for him to protect her, especially from something as dangerous as what he suspected Elena had become. He had only been vaguely aware of Elena's body a second ago, but now all his senses were reaching out, trying to predict what it might do next. He had been around predators of all kinds, including himself, long enough that he could recognise a killing machine when he saw one, as he did now. There was nothing _human _in Elena's face, nothing he could reason with or convince that he was not to be trifled with. She would kill him whilst he spoke.

"Don't make any sudden movements..." he breathed the words into the rich redness of her hair.

Before she could even blink, Damon had lifted her off of her feet and was standing at the window, at the far side of the spacious room, furthest from the door and far enough away from the twitching Elena to be fairly confident that he could make an escape. The door to the bedroom was off limits now, but the window could be just as advantageous as a means to flee. Though... was outside any safer than in this room? It was not something he could be sure of.

"When I say _now_, brace yourself."

"Wha—"

"Now!"

Bonnie was suddenly flying through the air, breaking through glass thick enough to really hurt when she hit it, and feeling cool wind bite at her cheeks. She fell for what felt to her like longer than she should have, but the landing came to soon. She closed her eyes and tried to ward off the headache. With her eyes closed she was more aware of her surroundings. It was cold this morning, but the scent of gasoline was rich enough in the air that she could smell it all around her.

Above her there were the sounds of fighting, growling, and of tearing. She still had her eyes closed, still trying to nurse her aching head, and what she heard did not comfort her. There was someone approaching her, she could hear their foot-falls and could feel the ground vibrating beneath her steadying hand. Someone, or _something_, was getting closer. Was it Damon, had he jumped from the shattered window so quietly the soles of his shoes hadn't made a sound?

There was a shuddering then, as if someone had jumped from the window above, and the growl of an animal. Bonnie began screaming, her eyes still closed more from the fear of what she would see than anything else, and her heart raced in her chest. Was this it? Was the nightmare Damon had described real, and was it just a few feet away from her now? Her racing heart seemed like answer enough. She screamed, wordless, blind, and felt inhuman arms wrap around her in a hold which she would never be able to shake. More growling, but this time closer, right beside her.

Damon looked around him at the utter bedlam. His throat was sore from all of the growling, but it seemed to be the only thing these creatures understood—that, and violence. With any luck, Elena was still pinned to the wall of the bedroom, pieces of broken furniture sticking out of her arms and legs. He had put them there, and with enough force that they would be a real bitch to remove. In a way he hoped that she suffered, she would have killed Bonnie given the chance, but he also prayed that he could save her.

"Damon!"

Her scream brought him back to the present. The ghouls were converging on them in greater numbers than he had anticipated, and time was running out to do anything. He had to do _something_ and the way out of this was up.

Bonnie screamed again, but not out of fear as much as for the unexpected. Damon's arm around her had only tightened a little, but suddenly they were airborne and shooting up into the sky. She had felt as though they would reach the clouds, but in reality he only managed the top of a tall tree. Still, it was very tall.

"I don't think they're capable of climbing trees," Damon said very quietly, looking down on the chaos below. "But if they can, there are plenty more to choose from..."

"Damon?"

"Yes...?" he said, looking down and wondering what had made her suddenly so calm.

"Are you... feeling ok?" It was just that she saw the cloudiness of his eyes.

"I'm surprisingly good, all things considered, why?"

"Oh, it's nothing." She hoped that it was nothing.

TBC


End file.
